Lincoln, NE election results

[Husker]

Greetings from the western Corn Belt! Thought I would share some analysis I did of the 2008 election in Lincoln.

I broke down the vote in my hometown into different neighborhoods: Suburban, Capitol, Core, Country Club, Working class, Absentee. I did this because I think it is interesting how certain neighborhoods tend to be more right or left tilting. I find the difference between some of the precincts in the "core" neighborhoods and some of the precincts in the "suburban" neighborhoods to be particularly fascinating simply because the demographics (on paper anyway) are very similar. Anyway, here are the results and keep in mind that there is a relatively significant rural vote in Lancaster County so that pushed the county more toward the right (Obama won 51.5-46.5 in Lancaster County):


Region of Lincoln   Total Vote:   McCain   Obama   Nader
Suburban                  33146     54.4       43.4    < 1.0
Capitol                    463            19.8       74.7       1.1
Core                          14002     33.4       63.2       1.0
Country club          1926           38.0       60.1   < 1.0
Working class          37428        44.5       52.5   < 1.0
Absentee                  27000       40.7       57.4   < 1.0

The neighborhood break down is as follows:

Suburban- Lincoln doesn't have an actual suburb but various parts of the city have more of a post 1980, suburban feel to it: non-gridded streets, mostly white and middle class people with some upper middle class too. In most ways, this part of town looks like a stereotypical Midwestern suburban area and the voting here reflects this.

Capitol: This only comprises one precinct but this is the neighborhood that surrounds the capitol. The neighborhood is pretty diverse racially (although is still probably at least 55% white) and is relatively poor, but is not a true ghetto by any means. Many UNL students live here as do many international refugees. Overall, this neighborhood has a pretty liberal feel to it.

Core: These are the original neighborhoods of Lincoln. These neighborhoods are relatively mixed racially (by relative it is probably 80% white and 20% of a variety of other races) and have a mix of high income, middle class, and low income voters. No joke, there are places where $800K homes are 2 blocks from apartments that house every creed and color. Overall though, I would describe this part of town as a left-tilting, well educated, middle class area.

Country Club: This only comprises 4 precincts, but I made it separate since this is an area that stands out from the other older neighborhoods in town. In general, this is an area with affluent people and many older, stately homes worth over 500K (which in Lincoln is quite expensive).  I'm not really sure what occupation these folks have (UNL doesn't pay THAT well) but this area definitely has a distinct guilty rich liberal feel to it.

Working class: This is the part of town built mostly between World War 2 and about 1980. These are generally very middle class neighborhoods and have some of the same stereotypes that go along with it (working man values fiscally, more conservative values socially). In general, most people are somewhat educated (but not necessarily college) and there is some diversity, but generally speaking is pretty white in ethnicity. So, really these are your "All-american" neighborhoods and the vote here is generally very close to the national vote.

[Husker]

Thanks for the welcome guys. I probably should have mentioned that I'm a left leaning individual myself and proudly voted for Obama.

Alcon, how do you want me to get you precinct data?

[Husker]

I've outlined the various parts of town with simple boxes. Boxes outlined in white are more working class type neighborhoods, the green box represents the core neighborhoods (of which the capitol district is a part of), and the dark black box represents the Country club area. Everything else is considered more suburban in nature, keeping in mind that it is still the city of Lincoln. There is nothing but corn and soybean fields around the city.

Sbane,  Actually the wealthiest part of town is the country club area which Obama won by 20-25 points. The suburban area is your standard Midwest, middle class suburban area: strongly republican but not by ridiculous margins.

[Husker]

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I thought I'd share some photos I took around Halloween of various places in Lincoln. The vast majority of these pictures are from the Core, Country Club, and Capitol neighborhoods. But, in case any of you are bored and/or are curious as to what Lincoln is like, here are some pictures. It certainly isn't NYC, Tokyo, San Francisco, Chicago, London, etc... but it isn't bad either:

http://web.mac.com/ehunt83/Site/Fall_Photos_Yard_Signs_War.html#0

Pics 1-3:    Working class
      4-18:   Core
      19-41: Country Club
      42-72: Core
      73-83: Capitol
      84-93: Core
           
       

[Husker]

MobileMe has been fine for me, although I can't say I'm ecstatic about it.

One other point on the neighborhoods. When I say a wealthy area, I mean that in a relative sense. We don't really have a ton of filthy rich people here but we have some that are pretty well off. The nicer homes in the Country Club area are certainly elegant and nice, but are quite modest compared to some other places in the country. Keep in mind that many people with a decent bit of money in this part of the country tend to have a similar attitude as Warren Buffett: live in a decent place, drive a decent car, etc... but don't "show it off."

[Husker]

I've outlined the various parts of town with simple boxes. Boxes outlined in white are more working class type neighborhoods, the green box represents the core neighborhoods (of which the capitol district is a part of), and the dark black box represents the Country club area. Everything else is considered more suburban in nature, keeping in mind that it is still the city of Lincoln. There is nothing but corn and soybean fields around the city.

Sbane,  Actually the wealthiest part of town is the country club area which Obama won by 20-25 points. The suburban area is your standard Midwest, middle class suburban area: strongly republican but not by ridiculous margins.

First I would like to say welcome to the forum and thank you for your analysis. It is wonderful. It is interesting that even in a relatively small city, Obama was winning among the super wealthy. I guess these are the people rich enough to not care about taxes or they are just super liberal on social issues? Suburban voting patterns make sense though. They are wealthy enough to not depend on government, while at the same time are conservative on social issues due to being more family centered and what not.

This part of town is pretty socially liberal but it's not Greenwich Village by any means. I'm really not sure what the median income of that area is, but it's probably relatively high (but not East Coast suburbs high). I was shocked when I realized that there are neighborhoods in this relatively small city (surrounded by corn fields no less) where rich people vote democrat. In a way, I think it is a mini-version of what you see in other major urban areas.